Plastic Chutney!

A translucent love-affair

                     My love affair with chutneys have not had seen a low day yet right from the moment it began, it began a long time ago, it takes me back to my early childhood.  And sometimes I am amazed to find how the memories of chutney from that time-period, has still been carefully stored in my brain cells! I remember with clarity, it was long time ago, I was just entering school in standard 1 and a new family moved in just beside our home. That time most of the spaces around our house were still empty and green, so when this new family appeared I witnessed a new house being built just beside our home. Mom, dad and a young kid- three of them, later on I came to know this young boy was at the same age with me. It didn't take long for our friendship to develop and flourish, later on we entered the same school. While their house was being built they used to live nearby in a rented house and many times me and my mom used to visit them there.

 

                                                                                                                                                                        It was the middle of yellow summer, one day after spending hours in the green fields playing and jumping in the burning noon, me n my friend went back to his home, it was time to have a bath and have lunch, while  we are still playing inside the house his mother brings this new dish made from mangoes, she feeds this to me and him and I can’t describe in words how it tasted that time…after so many years if I have to describe that taste I will say it was tangy, filled with the amazing flavor of those particular mangoes she used, it was sweet, light translucent yellow in color, by the texture it was runny…later on I came to know it was called “Ambole” and at the top of all of this description..It was divine. It was so tasty that it has stuck to my brain even without my knowledge! When I came back home I told my mother about this and she was excited hearing the detailed description from her little son. Some days later while talking to her, my mother mentions how much I talked about that Mango Ambole , it made her smile hearing about it and guess what! After a couple of days she comes to our home with a bowl full of Ambole! Oh my god! I was so excited, this time she brings an Ambole of Bottle gourd! In Hindi bottle gourd is often called Ghiya/Dhudhi/Lauki, in Bengali it is known as Lau, in English we know this sometimes as Calabash/Long Melon, the biological name being Lagenaria Siceraria. The Ambole was almost translucent with a touch of green in it and it tasted so wonderful- a combination of sweet n sour and the flavor of Lau.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             The difference between Ambole and Chutney is in its texture, while chutney is thicker, syrupy, little jam like, Ambole tends to be lighter n runny, more liquid than chutney. Chutney and Ambole both are made from various fruits like mangoes, tamarind, grapes, pineapple, pomegranate, green papaya and much more and often eaten paired with crunchy papad/papadums.

The chutney today I am gonna tell you about is a very special chutney first of all because it is called Plastic chutney! Off course it is made from Plastic sheets, that’s why it is called so.

                                                                                                                                                                                   No. Lol. In fact it is made from green papaya, it is peeled and then thinly sliced, placed in a flavored sugar syrup for some time until the thin slices are cooked through, have absorbed the flavored sugar syrup and have become literally translucent like tiny plastic sheets. So now you know the secret. There are many people who tend to avoid dishes made from raw papaya, but just give them this chutney without telling them what it is made from and watch them getting lost in it, licking their fingers, the bowl…its fun watching that I tell you. Some times less information does a job well. And I think how green papaya does its magic with its humble origin in the tree. And for all those who stay away from green papaya…you are missing out something very nice.

                                                                                  I don’t remember well when n where I first tasted this unique chutney, I must have got its first taste in a feast during a Hindu marriage or on the celebratory gathering when a child is 6 months old and he/she first starts to eat a grain of rice-it is celebrated and it is known as “Annoprashan” where the word “Anno/Anna” means rice. Later on the word ‘plastic chutney’ ignited my curiosity, following that years later I cooked it in my kitchen and that was the first time it was made in our home. Since then I have never stopped.

                                                                                  Now it’s time for the recipe. Bon Appetit! Bhalo Kore Khaben!

   

  For the Recipe: you will need

1 medium raw green papaya

1 cup granulated sugar

2-2 ½ cups water

1-2 tsp of lime juice

1 tbsp kismis/sultana

½-1 tsp mustard seeds

½-1 tsp fennel/mouri/saunf seeds

A pinch of salt

5-6 almonds thinly sliced.

2 tsp  flavorless vegetable oil.                

          1.       First peel the green papaya with a peeler, then half it lengthwise, then slice each half into 4-5 sections lengthwise until in the middle their maximum thickness is around 1 inch.  Doing that you have around 8 long slices of the papaya. Remove the seeds and thinly slice out the whitish part just beneath the seeds. Now place one of the slice on chopping board, you need a sharp knife now, start to slice as thinly as you can along the breath. You will get like rectangular thin slices with curved edges as you slice. Try to slice as thinly as you can, so a good sharp knife is helpful, also keep in mind if you are not an expert with knifes it will take a bit of time. Be careful with your fingers. Do the same with the other 8 portions with patience, it will take around 15 minutes and you will end up with a heap of sliced papaya.

2.       In a saucepan or kadhai or wok, place the sugar, pour the water over it, then put it in low heat, stir in between until the sugar has completely melted, now increase the heat to medium and let it reach a simmer, then pour all the sliced papaya in that, mix well, now lower the heat, cover the pan and now it will take 15-20 minutes until the papaya slices will start to get translucent.  After the initial 10 minutes add the kismis/sultanas. You have to stir in between a few times and keep the heat low, if the slices are a bit thick it will take more time for them to go translucent, being thinner it will take less time.

3.       After 20 minutes you can literally see they have become translucent, sprinkle a little pinch of salt in then, and then add the lime juice. Taste it, adjust it.

4.       In a separate pan heat a tsp of flavorless vegetable oil, let it heat up in a medium flame, when hot add the mustard seeds first, let them start to pop, add the fennel seeds, remove from flame, give them 30 seconds, then pour this whole thing into the chutney and mix.

5.       With half a tsp of vegetable oil in low heat in the same pan, add the sliced almonds, toss them with spoon at time until they start to get little light brown, once there remove from heat. Sprinkle them over the chutney. The almonds add a little crunch and their flavor.    

                                                                            

And now you should enjoy this after all that hard work J let it make you smile.

A childhood full of tomato chutney...

Hey my dear reader! How are you doing? You know what I think…I think tomatoes are made in heaven! I mean I know it is a fancy thing to say, and tomatoes grow in their trees, so heaven must be in the air…but once in awhile when I start to love something or someone dearly,  my mind fills up with beautiful imagination – a different world is created where the boundaries of reality and imagination exchange each other’s caps. Now the thing is I really like tomatoes…some of my favorite food items contains them in abundance, imagine a pizza without tomato sauce! Or a Chana Masala without them! Or Ghughni without the red ripe tomatoes in them? Or Bruschetta without tomatoes! Spaghetti without tomato sauce! Even Bloody Mary will be incomplete without them! Sounds dull right? Yes the world will be dull without tomatoes. As a kid I was a huge fan of tomato ketchup, I grew up licking it, pouring them on noodles until it was  a bit too much, pouring them on puffed rice, samosas, puff pastry and what not! I remember as  a little boy I used to have tomato ketchup just like that anytime  really and when the big bottle was about to finish, no more drops will fall off, I used to pour a little water inside the bottle followed by some shakes so the water will turn into a lighter tomato ketchup and have it! Imagine this! Oh and where I will be without my glorious tomato chutney! Without the chutneys a big part of my childhood will lose its flavor, as if the sweet chutneys added their sweetness and flavor into my childhood and made it a sweet comfortable place.

                                                                      So how can I not tell you about chutneys? Especially the ones I adore. Chutney is Indian in origin and as time passed by it spread its flavor across the seas, so much so that chutneys are now established part of British cuisine. However the chutneys in India are quite different than the ones you may find in Britain, especially in the use of malt vinegar used in British chutneys for long keeping, so it becomes more close to the idea of pickles. In India vinegar is not used in any chutney, also the fact that there are almost 2 categories of chutney-the sweet ones and the savory ones. Basically chutney is a relish made from fresh fruits or tomatoes or dried fruits like dates, raisins, kismis and figs, from sun-dried mango pulp cakes/aam-papd/aamsatto plus the spices used in them which vary along with the ingredients. Chutney is real comfort food; you can have it at the end of a meal which will only make the ending sweeter, isn't that nice! You can have it mixed with a little rice, with crisp fried papadums, with a crisp thin toast, even spread on a thin crust pizza base…and we have in hand a very delicious sweet pizza... yummy. You can even use it as the main ingredient of a dressing for a salad...Like I do when I make green mango chutney which I later use as a dressing on a simple salad and the salad bursts into a song as the chutney comes into play! Oh I think I am getting carried away. By getting carried away has its own rewards…we reach new shores where we have not been before.

                            I simply love sweet chutneys, they are my comfort deserts, bursting with flavors and they pamper me so much. I enjoy them on a wet monsoon day when everything around me is wet and I dig into the chutney with my boat of crisp fried papadums which is super yummy, or a summer evening with green mango chutney, some tamarind chutney, on winter days like this I am with date-aam-papad chutney, mix fruit chutney, some days I’m busy with deep red cherry chutneys… I am seducing my soul writing about chutneys so much...because I have such memories it is very easy for me to get myself there mentally as I write it. What I really hope that you, dear reader, if you have never tasted chutney before, now the time has come that you must and after that experience you will be a very happy person.

The fun part was in the elaborate way of eating chutney with my hands, more hands- very less spoon experience. I used to sit with a big bowl of tomato and green mango chutney with tiny spoon, I only used the spoon to lift a little amount of chutney into my palm , then lick it, dip my fingers into the chutney, lifting up chunks of tomato n mango out of the bowl, balancing them on my fingers tips on the way to my lips while some drops of the syrup of the chutney will fall all over me, and then next moment is chutney mediation moment, eyes closed, lips sealed with chutney…ummmm. It was such a fun where the experience of enjoying it became as fun as eating it. I used to eat it at times with my sister and my friend. Now it is still fun for chutneys stay chutneys all along the time and they make us happy just like yesterday.

I think chutneys are quiet romantic food, if someone has to make a sweet impression on someone or just to make someone happy, prepare a delicious chutney and you will see how far it goes. I hope it goes very far. Now there is a saying “ all is well that ends well”, now this I find to be true, wherever I go out to eat at a traditional place  or I cook up a whole traditional meal ending with chutney, it becomes the most satisfying moment to end with a good chutney. There can be blunders in the course of the meal where some items didn't make you happy, while some blew my mind away with their flavors, but as the sweet chutney makes it entry…u la la…i forget about all the blunders, superb dishes are forgotten, all I remember is the chutney.

Aright so now straightaway I will give you the recipe for the sweet tomato chutney. Oh! By the way did I tell you that the word chutney has its source from the word “chaat” which is a verb and which means to lick, so you must lick.

The recipe: You will need

4-5 medium red ripe tomatoes

1 tsp of five spice (cumin, fennel, nigella seeds, black mustard, fenugreek seeds-use half the amount of fenugreek compared to amount of each individual other spice, like 1 unit each of cumin, fennel, nigella, black mustard n ½ unit of fenugreek seed.)

¼ the block of aam-papd/aamsatto block cut into ½ inch cubes.

A handful of dates halved or quartered.

½ cup of sugar (you may need more or less depending on the tartness of the tomatoes or how sweet you want your chutney to be)

1 ½ cup of water

 Pinch of salt.

½ tsp of vegetable oil.

Around ½ tsp of tamarind paste or store brought tamarind chutney for a touch of sourness.

 Begin by removing the eye of the tomatoes from their top part , then  cut them into medium chunk along their length, say making 4-5 chunks out of one half of the tomatoes. Having done that place the sugar and the water together in a pan, then put the pan on low flame, stir in between until the sugar has completely dissolved , then increase the flame to medium and let it come to a simmer. While it comes to a simmer take another pan, on medium flame, heat the oil in the pan, then add the five spice in the pan, on low flame give it 30 seconds until the mustard seeds start to sputter, then add the tomatoes, toss them with the spices for a 2-3 minutes. Now transfer the whole batch of tomatoes along with the spices in the sugar syrup. Add the dates and half of the aam-papad cubes and then cover the pan and let it only simmer like that for about 15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt in between, check the sweetness, if you think it need more sugar according to your taste go for it. after about 15 /20 minutes it has reached the stage of being called a chutney, most of the water by now has reduced now, it is much more thicker now, the tomatoes are softer, part of the tomatoes has melted into the syrup. If you would want the chutney to be little thin stop at this part, if you want otherwise give it couple of minutes. Now add the tamarind pulp/chutney, mix well, and put the flame off. Add the rest half of the aam-papad, cover the pan and leave it for 5 minutes. Super simple isn't it! Now you can start licking. :) enjoy it with crisp friend papadums, crisp chips, crisp tortilla, crisp roti, on toasts, on graham crackers or just on their own. Bon appétitJ